SciArt profile: Petra Korlević
Posted by the Node, on 27 November 2024
In this SciArt profile, we meet Petra Korlević, a scientist at the Wellcome Sanger Institute, interested in retrieving DNA from historic mosquito collections.
Can you tell us about your background and what you work on now?
I work on human malaria transmitting mosquitoes; population genetics, insecticide resistance, and currently trying to marry all that up with landscape genomics. My background is on getting DNA from difficult samples, for my PhD I worked on method development for ancient DNA extraction from bones and teeth, for my postdoc I developed a method for minimally morphologically destructive DNA extraction from museum pinned insects.
Were you always going to be a scientist?
I was going to be way too many things, a veterinarian, a cartoon artist, an astronomer, a physicist… and also a nature researcher, so being a biologist fits at least that box. Though thinking of plans “for retirement” having a rescue for all the abandoned cats and dogs back home in Croatia wouldn’t be bad either.
And what about art – have you always enjoyed it?
My first ever recorded and preserved doodle was crayons on my dad’s arm at 11 months old, so I had a pretty quick start. Next was the living room wall. Then paper. I was lucky I grew up in an environment where art was encouraged together with, not against, a scientific pursuit. Then it got a bit tricky in school because I would still doodle things in my notebooks which not all teachers appreciated. I had a pretty harsh art-block during my undergrads and masters, but in the end art persevered!
What or who are your most important artistic influences?
I grew up on Franco-Belgian and Italian Topolino comics. Back then my main influence was my dad since he, my sister and I would sit down and paint/draw together. There are just too many artists whose work I admire to list here, but a few: Vincent van Gogh (grew up with the starry night on the wall), Michael Whelan (his sci fi and fantasy realism is breathtaking, we used to sit down and make stories from his paintings without knowing the books attached to them), Joshua from False Knees (the ways he keeps animal drawings mostly realistic but with such beautifully woven personalities in nothing but simple pencil strokes is such an inspiration), Chen Zha (chentomology) and Nicole (fossilforager) (the two of them have some of the cutest invertebrate art out there, and invertebrates always need more love) and so so many more I am so sorry I can’t put you all in here!
How do you make your art?
While I do still enjoy the occasional traditional media project (and do embroidery as a hobby), I primarily use Procreate on my iPad, and Inkscape on my laptop. One thing I wish is to have more time to actually learn new things, I would love to learn animation and other new software.
Does your science influence your art at all, or vice versa, or are they separate worlds?
It is a big symbiotic organism, both are amazing outlets for my creative process. And it definitely helps with creating engaging talks (for scientists or the general public) and having pretty paper figures.
What are you thinking of working on next?
Science-wise I need to get a wishlist of new Anopheles reference genome and get to mapping a bunch of understudied malaria vectors, then putting them into their habitat/climate context.
Art-wise I need to doodle our next children’s book! Previous one was on dinosaurs (https://olympiapublishers.com/books/whats-your-favourite-dinosaur), this one will be on big numbers.
Find out more about Petra:
Website: https://www.sanger.ac.uk/person/korlevic-petra
Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/petrathepostdoc.bsky.social
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Am seeking direct contact with Petra Korlevic 1) for her engagement with Sci-art, 2) for her previous work on dolphins, inter alia.
Colin Sanderson, The Artiscience Library, Edinburgh